1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to high resolution displays, and, more particularly, to improving legibility of software applications displayed on high resolution displays.
2. Description of the Related Art
High resolution displays currently being sold can have pixel densities around 200 pixels per inch (PPI). For example, the IBM T221 has a pixel density of 204 PPI. Software applications written to be legible at all resolutions benefit greatly from the higher pixel density. Many applications, however, are written under the assumption of a 96 PPI display, which is typical in lower resolution displays. For example, an application may include resources whose dimensions and placement are described in terms of the number of pixels (e.g., a bitmap, text). The problem is that legacy applications written under the assumption of the lower resolution displays suffer from reduced legibility when displayed on the high resolution displays. In particular, icons and text of the legacy applications may be displayed too small to be easily legible to the human eye.
Microsoft has drafted an article, H. Kramer, Microsoft Corp., How to Write High DPI Applications (GDU Technical Articles), published March 2001, which details the steps necessary to properly write applications for high resolution displays. However, because the vast amount of applications already written do not take the article's suggestions into account, a legibility issue still exists when these applications are displayed on high resolution displays.
Furthermore, the current standard of practice for changing screen resolution is to change the settings for the operating system. For example, in the Microsoft Windows operating system, a user must enter a “control panel” and choose from several menu options several levels deep to change the screen resolution. Such a practice is often time-consuming and inefficient, especially if the user desires to toggle between resolutions frequently.
Therefore, a need exists for an efficient method that legibly displays applications written for lower resolution displays on high resolution displays.